Summary
DECREASING COLORECTAL CANCER DEATH BY MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS, MOLECULAR
IMAGING AND
PERSONALIZED THERAPY
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third highest cause of cancer related mortality
in the western world. In the Netherlands
there are 10000 new cases and 4400 deaths per year . In the near future these
numbers , and subsequently the
healthcare costs associated with the disease, are expected to increase, despite
the development of novel therapies
and screening programs.
CRC experts agree that the most promising strategies to decrease CRC rates and
relieve these burdens are; 1) early
detection and optimal staging of the disease and 2 ) personalized therapies
based upon individual tumor
characteristics.
DeCoDe (www.ctmmdecode.nl) contains leading Dutch clinicians, scientists and
industries, combining expertise,
infrastructure and clinical material and data to develop novel diagnostic and
imaging approaches. Use will be made
recently obtained knowledge regarding specific tumor biology of CRC, enabling
the detection/use of this biological
information in the tumor itself but also in stool and blood of patients. DeCoDe
will translate this technology into methods
for 1) early detection of CRC using stool/blood tests, 2) molecular imaging
approaches for optimal staging and 3)
personalized treatment (based upon the specific tumor biology elucidated using
these new diagnostic and imaging
tests).
Novel methods will be tested extensively in large series of CRC patients and
clinical trials and will be evaluated against the
currently used tests. Subsequently, diagnostic efficacy as well as cost
effectiveness of both the molecular early
diagnosis and the personalized therapy tests will be evaluated using calculation
models specifically designed to
evaluate the results generated by DeCoDe.
The DeCoDe project will not only decrease CRC mortality and the health care
costs associated with this disease but will
also create economic and technological value for the industrial DeCoDe partners,
in that novel products will be
developed and new job opportunities will be created.
In order to organize a large scale translational research project like DeCoDe,
logistics related to standardized collection and
storage of material and, clinical data will be implemented. This will facilitate
optimal sharing of clinical material and data will
can be translated to novel technology quickly. This logistic infrastructure will
also be linked to parallel large scale
initiatives like Parelsnoer where appropriate.
Concluding, this consortium brings together most major Dutch research groups in
translational CRC medicine. By close
collaborations between these research groups and industrial partners, leaders
the fields of early molecular detection,
personalized therapies, and molecular imaging are represented in this
consortium. With established track records in
running large scale studies of this dimension, translating basic findings into
clinical applications, and developing novel
diagnostic and imaging strategies, DeCoDe is confident and motivated to
translate and drive the work detailed in this
project towards a beneficial clinical, societal and economic endpoint.
